Police across England and Wales have been left powerless this weekend to detain suspects who breach bail conditions, such as trying to contact their victims.

Fresh Metropolitan police guidance that police bail conditions could no longer be enforced has been circulated to police forces across England and Wales, deepening the crisis provoked by a legal ruling overturning 25 years of police practice.

The Met's legal advice makes clear that bail conditions no longer apply to anyone who has been on police bail for more than four days, or more likely a day if 96 hours have passed since they were first arrested.

It means the police have lost the power to detain or arrest someone for breaching their bail.

There are currently more than 80,000 suspects in England and Wales on police bail, including 175 people who have been bailed for murder, attempted murder or conspiracy to murder in London.

Bail conditions typically include instructions to suspects not to contact named people, such as the victim, not to go near a specific address or within half a mile, for example, of a victim's home, and having to live at a specific address and report back to a police station at specific times.

In an attempt to stem the crisis, the supreme court is to be asked on Monday by Greater Manchester police to suspend the original ruling that triggered the crisis until a full appeal is heard on 25 July.

The initial ruling by a Salford district judge, upheld by the high court on 19 May, said that the police could no longer detain or bail suspects they take in for questioning for more than 96 hours or four days without charging or releasing them.

Home Office ministers promised on Thursday to introduce emergency legislation to overturn the ruling, but it appears that the bill is unlikely to be ready until the end of next week. The Commons rises for the summer recess on 19 Jul, which means the timetable would be extremely tight to get it on the statute book.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the new guidance that bail conditions were now unenforceable was an appalling position for victims, witnesses and the police to be left in.

"It is extremely serious for victims if bail conditions can't be enforced or if suspects can't be taken back into custody if there is a risk that they may intimidate witnesses," she said. "It is particularly worrying for domestic violence cases and serious offences where it is vital that victims and witnesses are protected while investigations are ongoing."

Cooper said the home secretary, Theresa May, had to get an urgent grip on the crisis with a much faster timetable for emergency legislation: "I still cannot understand why no one applied for a stay of judgement when the Home Office first knew about this over a month ago. This delay and incompetence could become dangerous if they don't act faster than this."

The police minister, Nick Herbert, told the Commons on Thursday that Home Office civil servants were told by Greater Manchester police of the court ruling in May.

But he said officials did not receive a written copy of the judgment until 17 June and ministers were alerted only "when the scale of the problem became clear".